Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Time With Christine and a Big Bread Basket Welcome to Chelsea Cook, our new Guest Designer!

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and those of you who were fortunate enough to attend CHA... I hope you are filled with inspiration!!! We have some wonderful inspiration for you here today, as we are going to spend some time with Christine Okken, who has been Guest Designing for Our Daily Bread designs this past month, and has now taken a position on our brand new Challenge Team! She has made a card with one of our soon to be released sets that will blow you away, and her inspiring story will touch your hearts!

Before we get to that I want to make a SPECIAL Announcement! Our Daily Bread Designs welcomes our NEW Guest Designer for Feb. and March.... Chelsea Cook! If you have spent much time on our new Forum on SCS, on our prayer request threads, you already know Chelsea as 1HapEMomE. She has such a big heart for the Lord and for others! There will be more about Chelsea in Feb. on the ODBD Store site, but for now I just wanted to welcome her and encourage you to visit her blog, because she does such a special thing with her cards! Read about her card ministry here. Chelsea... welcome to the Bread Basket! We're so excited to have you with us!!! We can't wait to see all you create with these fabulous God honoring sets!

Now... on to our Time With our talented designer, Christine Okken! Here is what Christine has to say:

Hello Our Daily Bread Designs Fans! It's me Christine Okken, and it has been my privilege this past month to be a Guest Designer with you, and now I'm moving to the Challenge Team in February. Today, I get to spend a little time with you showing you something that I love, and something I created. If you know me, or as you spend time watching things I create, you'll see that I truly love to color. For me it's a wonderful creative expression. I love many mediums for coloring, probably watercoloring most of all, but in the last 18 months I've also added Copic Markers and Prismacolor Pencils to my coloring repetitive too. Which is really fun, sometimes a different medium works better to gain a certain effect, or works better with a stamp set.

Which is what I found today with this beautiful Sneak Peek set ...He Watches Me. I started out with another coloring method, and it just wasn't working for me. So I switched to Prismacolor Pencils and love the effect.

I have to tell you a little story about this particular bird before I describe the card , and if you're interested in the whole story, I'll have it on my blog ChristineCreations. As soon as I saw this set I was immediately reminded of a time in our lives again. There was a time when my husband and I were at a staff retreat on an island off the coast of British Columbia (Keat's Island). It was a beautiful place, right on the ocean, stunning scenery and a real haven - but my husband and I were at a very difficult decision point. We were faced with some very significant choices that would impact our future - and the future of our family and these decisions were weighing on us. There was one particular moment where we were sitting on the patio of the retreat center, sitting together under the overhang in a big Adirondack chair looking at the ocean, discussing our decision, seeking God, exposing our fears, weaping together. We spent well over an hour there together. And as the time went on I realized that above us in the rafters of the overhang, there was a sparrow "sitting with us". That sweet sparrow did not move the entire time we were there. It was still. And it was then that I realized that God had sent that sparrow to remind us of His truth. And that beautiful song by Civilla D. Martin came to our minds, "His Eye is on the Sparrow, and I know He watches over me" and we knew that we too could say "So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows" (Matthew 10:31). We knew that God would care for us, and we knew what decision He was leading us to. It was a profound moment for us.

Alright...on to this card...I built up my color with a gentle hand with the Prismacolor pencils, pulling color from different parts of the card to link it all together. The background paper is beautiful velvet Juliette from the ODBD store. It adds such richness to the design. I used Labels Two and Labels Three Nestabilities to frame my main shape, using the Labels Three as a template to mask the edges while I sponged some deep Razzleberry ink on the image on the diagonal corners.

Here is a bit closer pic of the coloring.

Well, thanks for enjoying a few minutes with me today. It's delightful to get to know you a little better too!

Thank you so much Christine! Your work is always amazing and we love your heart for the Lord as well! Isn't it wonderful how the Lord leads us along.... we just need to be still and listen with a willing heart! Thank you for sharing your story with us, as well as this beautiful sneak peek at one of four FANTASTIC new sets to be released Feb 1! Be sure to visit Christine's Blog, and return often for more inspiration!

Be sure to visit Chelea's Blog and leave her a big welcome to the Bread Basket as well!

And don't forget the New Challenge Team will have it's first Challenge for you right here on the Our Daily Bread designs blog beginning Feb. 6th!

One more thing not to forget.... See ALL FOUR of these NEW SETS released by Our Daily Bread designs on Feb 1, and a blog hop presented by our talented Design Team on Feb 1... starting right here on the ODBD Blog!!! Everyone loves a Hop... and we work hard to make these hops fantastic for you!!! Hope to see you then... for another chance to WIN!!!! In the meantime be checking out all the Design Team's Blogs as we will be sneak peeking these fabulous sets this week!!!

Welcome Chelsea!! Stunning card Christine!! I love the elegant paper and your gorgeous coloring. The card is even more beautiful after reading your story. What a treasure to know God is guiding you!hugs,Chris